Sunday, July 15, 2007

So, these people let their kids nearly starve to death because they were too busy playing online D&D to feed them. For real. Their 11-month-old daughter weighed less than Filbertine, in fact there are babies born weighing what their 11-month-old weighed.

What really brings it home for me is to picture how much attention an 11-month-old and 22-month-old normally demand. I these kids weren't getting fed, the baby not even getting bottles, then obviously no one was talking to them. The article says they're "doing well" and gaining weight in foster care, but I doubt they will ever really "do well" now that they probably have attachment disorders. Check out this old article by my journalism family hero about the long-term consequences of neglect.

1 comment:

Do you really have to ask? Open your eyes. The problem isn't that the next mass murderer may be sitting right next to you, sleeping in your house, eating at your table, giving you every signal of desperation a person can give. The problem is, you don't want to see it. How else does a child become an emotionally alienated, psychologically twisted, mass murderer, unnoticed by everyone?

They don't.

Nobody gets that far gone without anyone noticing. We all recognize behavior that raises our concern. We all know when someone is more than just weird. We see it happening, and yet we ignore it, because if we don’t, we’ll have to take responsibility for doing something about it.

We go to movies filled with violent portrayals of ourselves more as animals than as humans. We know it’s the wrong message, but we ignore it, because if we don’t, we’ll have to take responsibility for doing something about it.

We watch television shows that portray us as vapid, meaningless cretins incapable of intelligence or kindness. We know it’s the wrong message, but we ignore it, because if we don’t, we’ll have to take responsibility for doing something about it.

We clap our hands and stomp our feet to the beat of songs whose lyrics would, if we saw them written on a piece of paper, scare the hell out of us. We know it’s the wrong message, but we ignore it, because if we don’t, we’ll have to take responsibility for doing something about it.

We trust Charlton Heston (a man we’ve confused with his movie roles) when he tells us that owning handguns is patriotic. We know handguns serve only one purpose, to kill human beings, but we ignore it, because if we don't, we’ll have to take responsibility for doing something about it.

We read books that tell us discipline equals love. So we demonstrate our "love" by suffocating our kids with a million rules and regulations. Instead of respecting them as individuals, we control them. Instead of getting to know them, we criticize everything they say and do. Instead of loving them, unconditionally, we judge them.

Children who are loved and respected, are not emotionally alienated. Children who are loved and respected, do not murder people.

As parents, teachers, and human beings, we are responsible for the messages we send, the violence we condone, and the children we raise.